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–Pix(above, L-R): Atiku, Tinubu and Obi
In what appears to be mockery of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and his PDP counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s ‘president-elect’, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has gone to court, too, seeking order to inspect electoral materials in defence of his “mandate as the president-elect.”
He sought an order from the Court of Appeal, Tuesday, for an unfettered access to sensitive materials used by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) for the conduct of the presidential election, February 25.
At the court session on Tuesday, Tinubu, through his lawyer, Akintola Makinde, said he would not only need to inspect, but scan and make photocopies of some of the electoral materials to enable him to prepare his defence against petitions that seek to nullify his ‘mandate’.
“The materials will be relevant in helping us to prepare our defence and also make comparison with the information contained in INEC’s back-end server,” Makinde said.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Tinubu of APC winner of the election by ascribing 8,794,726 votes to him, while ascribing 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes to PDP’s Atiku and LP’s Obi, respectively.
Recall also that the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) in Abuja, had, last Friday, granted permission to the presidential candidates of the Labour Party (LP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar, respectively, to inspect materials used for the February 25 presidential election.
A three-member panel presided over by Justice Joseph Ikyegh, granted the permission as sought in two separate motions ex-parte filed by Obi and Atiku.
While Atiku filed his own on March 1, Obi’s motion was filed the next day, March 2.
They both have the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), ‘President-elect’, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) listed as respondents.
Adedamola Falokun , who appeared for Atiku, moved his motion, while Alex Ejesieme (SAN) moved Obi’s motion, which the court granted.
Based on this, Tinubu had decided to make a mockery of his two opponents by going to court to obtain his own judgement. Political pundits watch with keen interest./SHARE THIS
- Tags: Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Peter Obi, Atiku Abubakar, INEC